Household appliances typically comprise one or more components responsible for the electromechanical operations of the appliance. For example, an oven can include an appliance management component having a printed circuit board (PCB) with memory, as well as a user-interface component, such as a control panel or keypad, for a user to issue commands to the oven. As another example, a washing machine can include an appliance management component, a user-interface component, and a motor control component that controls a motor of the washing machine.
Typically, discrete circuits couple the internal components of an appliance, with each discrete circuit responsible for individual communication between related components. The circuits communicate with each other over an internal network that traditionally is implemented by hard-wired ribbon cables or other connectors or harnesses between the components. The hard-wired connectors form a closed system or network that is difficult or not possible to modify. For example, because the closed network relies on hard-coded or hard-wired network solutions, it is not practical to couple additional external components or additional internal components to the appliance to expand the capability or function of the appliance. The closed network cannot easily be adapted for communication with the additional external/internal components and therefore limits the potential of the appliance.
Household appliances typically operate on an article using one or more cycles of operation. Many appliances perform the cycles of operation using a consumable. A consumable comprises a finite supply of at least one product or a perishable good that must be periodically replenished or replaced. For example, a washing machine might use a detergent and a fabric softener while washing clothes, or a dishwasher might use a detergent and a water softener while washing dishes. In some cases, appliances perform cycles of operation on a consumable as the article. A consumable may be a food item where, for example, a range oven or a microwave oven might perform a cycle of operation related to the consumable.
It is known to provide cycles of operation to an appliance based on a consumable, and to provide communication between the appliance and a device has or obtains information about the consumable. However, there is a need to improve communication with the appliance about the consumable.
Household appliances are typically comprised of one or more components which cause the electromechanical, electrothermal, and electrochemical operations of the appliance. For example, an oven may include an appliance management component, having a printed circuit board (PCB) with memory thereon, as well as a user interface component, such as a control panel or keypad for a user to issue commands to the oven appliance. The basic appliance models typically are difficult to design, develop, test, diagnose, control, and debug due to the diversity of componentry and the associated diversity of implementation choices. This diversity is an impediment to creating interoperable, reusable, value added componentry.
It has become known in recent years to interlink the components of an appliance by an internal communications network capable of sending and receiving control messages for controlling the interaction between the internal components of an appliance, as opposed to the use of a plurality of discrete circuits, with each discrete circuit responsible for an individual communication between related components and implemented by hard-wiring ribbon cables or other connectors or harnesses between the components. This internal network affords some degree of universality in connecting the components internal to the appliance, however, each component typically needs to be enabled with software within its microprocessor and the adjacent hardware circuitry to achieve network participation. One example of this internal network used within a household appliance is the WIDE network protocol, created by Whirlpool, Inc., the assignee of this document.